Hyderabad: Favourite pastime now a thing of past

Hyderabad: Dealing a blow upon a blow, the Covid pandemic also robbed an age-old sheen of city – hangout at Irani cafes. People would recall with angst that there was a time in Hyderabad when cafés serving Irani chai were favourite hangouts for denizens to spend hours at a stretch. But the pandemic have paved way for physical distancing and thus went away the cozy seating arrangements of famed cafes of the city.

Now, they are slowly doing away with seating and encouraging savouring of tea while standing, which also reduce the amount of time people spend there.Purana Sheher has a number of such hotels, at least two in a half km stretch and people including youngsters and elderly have a baitak (hangout) in these hotels.

Although, everything is slowly turning into normal, eateries continue to serve under tight norms. This brought in new practice of having a cup of tea while standing. Old City hotels which are known for 'ek chai peeyo aur der tak baitho' are now letting it go and customers are also taking to having tea in standing position.

For decades, these cafes in Old City are known for all kinds of meetings from casual to business deals, besides being hangout places. Famous hotels like Rumaan, Lucky, Café Bahar, Redaan, Shah Ghouse, Imperial started avoiding gatherings on their premises removed seating facility altogether and asking their customers to leave after they enjoy tea and snacks. The customers who are willing to have breakfast or dinner are now allowed in the eating section.

One-by-two chai disappears It is also been observed that the famous 'one-by-two' chai has also disappeared in pandemic times, as customers are mostly preferring for a single tea and 'one-by-two' tea is avoided as sharing cannot be counted as caring now. With hotels serving paper cups, the regular ceramic cups now lie in the storerooms of these cafes.

"Earlier, we used to sit and order one tea and share it. But now things have completely changed and everywhere it is self-service," said Shaik Ahmed. "During evening hours, our group of friends used to gather in hotel and discuss our daily routine. But now we have to adopt new ways. The management is not even allowing us to stand for long or even stand in parking space," said Tariq Omer, a resident of Mallepally. With reduced choices, the youth are now found hanging out at corners of roads, on footpaths or near their residences.